Fight Night 2004

"Knock out kings is down for the count, fight night 2004 is victorious!!"

After playing this game for countless hours and finishing the career mode twice I felt I'd try to write a review on this title without the hype and extra unnecessary fluff to help someone decide if this game is worth getting or not.

I started playing KO kings (KOK) with the first installment, and wasn't very impressed.
I found it to be sluggish, unrealistic and just overall slow paced and not really fun.
Honestly from there I gave up on the KOK franchise, I didn't bother with the series again until in KOK 2001. My cousin introduced me to it and with most of the complaints of the original KOK gone I became hooked (pun intended).
Since then I've played all of the new installments of KOK and was really anticipating Fight night (FN) when I heard they were overhauling the fight system and would have Jones as a spokes person I felt this was a must buy and honestly; I was not disappointed.

Game Play:
The game play is topnotch and is as expected for a boxing game, for a boxing game this title was put together pretty well (with only a few minor flaws), overall it's similar to the KOK style set up. The different modes of play include: VS, career, online play, quick boxing matches ECT.
The main game focus is the career mode were you fight your way up in boxing ranks, while earning money and upgrading skills, entrances, ring attire, music and quite a few extra features. The down side is The real lack of variety within the items/things to upgrade (Example: one escort wears one outfit, and another escort wears something very similar only a different color, but the price for one may be $50,000 and the other may be $500,000) I don't think they really thought out that part of this feature, there was no incentive to buy most items/extras.
7 of 10

Story:
There is no real story per-se, just again fight your way to the boxing rankings, become champ then retire after (forgot 20-30 years)
N/A of 10

Graphics:
The graphics for FN 2004 is as solid as an Uppercut from Iron Mike in his prime.
The fighters and arenas are very well animated, all of the boxers really look the part, the facial expressions and bruises they endure are in a word ''lifelike''.
The arena lighting and Knockdown replays animations are also done really well. The audience/crowd are pretty much redrawn characters, however the designers took the time to add so many different types of people you'll hardly notice.
I also felt that the rag doll animations were a plus and a minus; they were well done and some times funny (were no two knock downs are the same), however sometimes the look a little too much quirky, unrealistic and sometimes there's an issue with collision detection (A guy falls to the canvas yet the way his body is positioned it looks like he's almost floating a few inches off of the ground) but this didn’t really take away from the score.
9 of 10

Audio:
The audio is a mixed bag; as far as the game sound effects I thought it was top notch, the punches, and the crowd sounds, were crisp and clear. On the music and commentary side; I loved the way they used ''Victory'' as the theme for this game as it gives a fitting ''rocky'' feel to the sound track. Personally I love hip-hop/rap music and also understand that not everyone feels the same way, however I don’t particularly care for southern rap or most of the artists that were used on the soundtrack in this game so I found most of the c-rap in this game to be a disappointment.
While most tracks were fitting with the fight theme I feel they could have added way more variety as far as type of music, and being that there were only 7 songs/artists they should have added more artists like in the other KOK titles similar to 2001.
I also found Big Tigger’s voice a little annoying and unrealistic as the announcer, as the commentator he said some funny things and was a little bit more tolerate-able.
4 of 10

Controls:
Personally I was a fan of the 2001 control scheme and adjusted to the 2002-3 control system. The new total control system does add a whole new level of control and skill to the game, It took me a little bit to get used to but once mastered this becomes a technical, skillful game VS a button mashing frenzy.
The fighters are very responsive and become an extension of you, as opposed to a character that does an action if you push a button this is the way FN outshines the previous KOK games
8 of 10

Fun factor
In one word “yes”. If you’re a KOK, boxing, or boxing game fan odds are you’ll really like it
10 of 10

Re-playability
VS mode, career, online play, greatest fighter match ups, various extras and items to unlock you’ll get more than enough replay from this title

10 of 10

Good/Bad/Ugly

-Good: Good boxing title, lots of action, great visuals
-Bad: Limited music tracks left much to be desired
-ugly: “Good lord that man has a foot ball on his head after that beating”

Overall
FN 2004 is a solid title period; it has its minor letdowns here and there, but overall is a good game, great graphics/animation, fun game play, good replay value.
8 of 10

Buy/Rent
If you’re a KOK, boxing, or boxing game fan I would say run to your local game store and buy, if you’re still not sure I would at least recommend rent it for a week to see if you’d like to own it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/10/04